THE FISCAL RESCRIPT OF `UMAR II

Verily God sent Muhammad "with the Guidance and the Religion of Truth that He should make it supreme over every form of religion, rage the associators of gods with God as they may." [Koran, 9:34] And verily the religion of God wherewith He sent Muhammad is His Book which He sent down upon him, that God should be obeyed therein and that His command should be followed and what He has forbidden be avoided, and that His limits should be upheld and His ordinances observed, that what He has made unlawful should be prohibited, and that His right should be confessed and that men should be ruled by what He has revealed therein. Wherefore whoso follows the guidance of God is guided aright, and whoso turns away from it "he hath erred from the even way." [Koran 2:108] And verity of obedience to God, as He has revealed in His Book, is that all men everywhere should be summoned to Islam and that the gate of emigration should be opened to all the people of Islam, that the alms and fifths should be applied according to the decree of God and His ordinances, and that men should seek their livelihood with their own possessions on land and sea, being neither hindered nor withheld.

1. As for Islam, verily God sent Muhammad to all men everywhere, as He hath said: "And we have not sent thee save universally to men as a messenger of good tidings and of warning." [Koran 34:28] And He hath said: "O ye people, verily I am the Messenger of God to you all." [Koran 7:157] And God, blessed and exalted is He, hath said in that wherewith He commands the Believers in regard to the associators: Then if they repent and observe the prayers and pay the zakāt, they are your brethren in the Faith." [Koran 9:11] This is His decree and law; to follow it is obedience to God, to depart from it is rebellion. Wherefore summon to Islam and command thereto, for God hath said: "And who is better of speech that he who summons to God, and doeth good, and saith,`I am indeed one of the Muslims.'" [Koran 41:32]
2. Wherefore, whosoever accepts Islam, whether Christian or Jew or Magian, of those who are now subject to the jizya and who joins himself to the body of the Muslims in their abode, and who forsakes his abode wherein he was before, he shall enjoy all the privileges of the Muslims and shall be subject to all the duties laid upon them; and it is their duty to associate with him and to treat him as one of themselves. But as for his land and his dwelling, they are of the booty which God has given to the Muslims collectively; and had these persons accepted Islam thereon before God should give the conquest to the Muslims, it would remain their property; but it is now the booty given by God to the Muslims collectively.
3. And whosoever is now engaged in warfare against the Muslims, let him be summoned to Islam before he is engaged in battle; if he accepts Islam, he shall enjoy the privileges of the Muslims and be subject to the duties laid upon them, and he shall retain what he had of family and property when he accepted Islam. And if he be of the people of the Book and pay the jizya and withhold his hand from injury to the Muslims, we accept that from him.
4. As for emigration, we open it up to whosoever may emigrate of the bedouin, and who sells his cattle and removes from his bedouin abode to the abode of emigration and to do battle with our foe. Whoso does this shall have an equal share with the Emigrants in that which God has given them as booty. And verily God had described the Believers in His mention of the booty, and hath assigned it to the poor and the emigrants and to "those who had been established in the Abode and the Faith before them" [Koran 59:9], and to those who came after these; then He said: "and others of them who have not yet joined them." [Koran 57:3] For indeed the Emigrants had been striving without pay or subsistence being issued to them, wherefore God would enlarge His bounty to them and magnify the importance of conquest to them and to those who should follow their example and act upon their upright precedent, of those, their brethren, whom they love, that God might establish to each as his due the reward in the world to come and magnify to him the importance of conquest in this world.
5. As for the Alms, God, blessed and exalted is He, ordained them and named those who are entitled to them, when certain men loosed their tongues against them and made imputations in respect of them against their Prophet, when He said: "And among them are some who defame these in respect of the alms; if they are given thereof they are content, and if they are not given thereof, lo, they are enraged." [Koran 9:58] Wherefore God, blessed and exalted is He, said on this occasion: "The alms are only for the poor and the needy, for those who labor to collect them and those hearts are to be reconciled, and for the captives and debtors, and for the Way of God and the wayfarer, by ordinance from God, and God is Knowing and Wise." [Koran 9:60] The Apostle of God also defined the alms due on properties: cultivation, cattle, gold and silver. Wherefore let the alms be exacted as the Apostle of God defined and ordained, without injustice or excess against those who pay them, nor partiality to relatives in their distribution, nor exclusion of any who are entitled to them. Let them be distributed to those who are approved of the people of Islam, and let those charged with their distribution distribute them as God has commanded them. The Imam lays on them in regard to this the responsibility which has been laid on him, and he exculpates himself in regard to this from an accusation which has been repeatedly made in connection with them against the Imams who preceded him.
6. As for the Fifth, the previous Imams have disagreed as to its application, so that in regard to this certain among the people have made accusations and have freely repeated them, and the fifth has been applied in divers ways. Wherefore we have considered the matter and behold, it is according to the portions of the booty in the Book of God, neither of the two differing from the other. Now `Umar b. al Khattāb, God's mercy on him, gave a decision in regard to the booty with which the Muslims were satisfied; he assigned to the people pensions and provisions which should be regularly issued to them; and having seen that by payments under these heads he would never reach the total sum collected in booty, he considered that there should be a share in it for the orphan, the destitute and the wayfarer. Wherefore he held that the Fifth should be incorporated in the booty, and that it should be applied to the purposes named and ordained by God. This he did only that he might hold himself free from all blame in regard to it, and lest any suspicion should attach to him. So do you then follow the example of a just-dealing Imam, for the two verses, the verse on the booty and the verse on the Fifth, are in agreement. For God hath said, "Whatsoever God giveth as booty unto His apostle from the people of the settlements, it belongs to God and to the Apostle, and to the near of kin, the orphans, the destitute, and the wayfarer" [Koran 59:7]; and so likewise God ordained the distribution of the Fifth. Wherefore we hold that they should be put together and applied as booty for the benefit of the Muslims, and that it should not be appropriated as private property to the detriment of the Muslims, nor become "a commodity circulating among those of you that are rich." [Koran 59:7]
7. And we hold that the sacred tracts should be made free for the use of the Muslims collectively; for they were set aside and the animals collected in alms were placed in them that there might thereby be a source of strength and of benefit for those entitled to a share in the alms. But corruption has entered into their use, and certain among the people have made accusations in regard to them. Wherefore we consider it good to avoid making use of their sacred tracts and to hold ourselves free from suspicion in regard to them, seeing that matters in regard to them are in this case. And the Imam is but as any one of the Muslims in regard to them, seeing that matters in regard to them are in this case. And the Imam is but as any one of the Muslims in regard to them; he is but the rain which God sendeth down upon His servants, and all of them share in it equally.
8. Furthermore, fermented grape juice (tilā') holds no good for Muslims; it is but wine which is abusively called by the name of grape juice, and for which God has supplied substitutes which render it superfluous and divers wholesome beverages. And I know that men say: "`Umar, God be pleased with him, held it lawful, and certain men of the best of the former generation drank it." Truly, a draught of it was brought to `Umar, God be pleased with him, which had been cooked until it became thick and strong, and when it was brought to him he said: "Is this fermented grape juice (tilā')?", meaning thereby the tar (tilā') which is smeared on camels; then on tasting it he said: "There is no harm in this," so that people were led into confusion about it after `Umar's death. As for those of your righteous men who drank it, they did so before it was taken as an intoxicant. Now the Apostle of God said: "Forbidden is every intoxicant to every Muslim." Wherefore I do not hold it right that the reprobate should make for himself filth of God's wholesome mercies; and we consider that Muslims universally should keep themselves free of it and should regard it as unlawful, since it is one of the most comprehensive of gates by which sins enter in, and one of which I am most fearful lest by reason of it there should afflict the Muslims a calamity that would involve all of them in destruction.
9. As for the sea, we hold that its way is as the way of the dry land. God hath said: "God it is Who hath subdued to you the sea that the vessels may sail thereon by His command and that ye may seek of His bounty." [Koran 45:11] Therefore He hath given permission therein that whoso wills may trade thereon; and I hold that we should place no obstacle between it and any one of the people. for dry land and sea belong alike to God; He hath subdued them to His servants to seek of His bounty for themselves in both of them. How then should be intervene between God's servants and their means of livelihood?
10. Furthermore, in regard to standards of measure and weight, we see in both of them certain practices which those who adopt them themselves know to be injurious. Truly, there is no deviation in measuring save from giving short measure, nor in weighing is there excess save from deficiency. Wherefore we hold that all standards of measure and weight in the land should be one and the same throughout the whole land.
11. As for the Tithes, we consider that they should be abolished except from the owners of ploughland, for the owners of ploughland are taxed by this means.
12. Those from whom the jizya tax is exacted are of three categories: the cultivator who pays his jizya from his produce; the artisan who produced his jizya from his earnings; and the merchant who lays out his money and pays his jizya from that. And the practice in regard to these is one and the same.
13. As for the Muslims, the only obligation upon them is the alms on their properties; when they pay it into the public treasury, they receive a written indemnity for it, and there is no further claim upon them in respect of their properties in that year.
14. As for taxes on trade, this is the fraud which God prohibited and said: "Defraud not men in their affairs, and act not corruptly in the land creating mischief" [Koran 11:84]; but they have abusively called it by another name.
15. We hold that an Imam should not engage in trade, and that no trading should be permitted to any government agent in his office of government over which he is placed. For when a chief engages in trade, he appropriates to himself an advantage and obtains certain things which involve injury to those whom he governs, even if he desires not to do so.
16. And we hold that cultivated land should not be sold, because the purchaser purchases only for himself and cuts it off from the communal land for his own benefit, and the result of that is only the ruin of the land and the oppression of its cultivators.
17. As for those of the cultivators who have fled into other than their own land, and on whom jizya is imposed in respect of their own land, there is no obligation upon them other than that; and the collector of taxes on their land is the proper authority to claim the dues on it from them.
18. And we hold that corvées upon the cultivators should be abolished, because their object involves certain matters into which there enter injustice and tyranny.
19. And we hold that cultivated lands should be restored to the function to which they were assigned; for they were assigned as sources of provisions for the Muslims collectively; and what concerns the generality is preferable in respect of unity and greater in blessing.
20. Moreover, the inheritance of the cultivators belongs solely to their relatives or to the people of their land who produce the kharāj tax; wherefore we hold that nothing should be taken from them,...unless he be a fiscal officer and the Imam sends him into the district which is under his administration for that which he holds to be due against him.

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• 10/16/03